Israel

The verse "Hear, Israel" is the upper unification, and "Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever" is the lower unification, for "va'ed" ("and ever") is "echad" ("one") by exchange of the letters.

To understand a very little of what is written in the Zohar: that "Hear, Israel," and so on, is the higher union, and "Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom for all time and forever" is the lower union.

And the second is a love that every person can reach, when he contemplates well, in the depth of the heart, the things that awaken love for Hashem in the heart of every one of Israel.

Now, Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, wished to plant the matter of this love in the heart of all Israel, in the portion (Deuteronomy 10:12) "And now, Israel," and so on, in the verse "Behold, to Hashem your Elohim belong the heavens," and so on (there, 14), "Only in your fathers did He set His desire," and so on (there, 15), "And you shall circumcise," and so on (there, 16), "With seventy souls," and so on (Deuteronomy 10:22), "And you shall love," and so on (Deuteronomy 11:1).

And therefore it is called, by way of analogy, the mother of the children, and the Assembly of Israel, because from this source the souls of Atzilut (emanation) were emanated, and the souls of Beriah (creation) were created, and so on.

That is to say, that He is separate from them and does not clothe Himself in them in a manner of revelation, but "the whole earth is full of His glory," which is the Community of Israel above and Israel below, as above.

And therefore it is called "a love of the world," for it is the manner of contraction of His great light that has no end, to clothe itself in the manner of limit, which is called "world," for the sake of love of His people Israel, in order to bring them near to Him, to be included in His union and His oneness, blessed be He.

And all of them ask, "Where is the place of His glory?" and they answer, "The whole earth is full of His glory": they are Israel, His people.

For the Holy One, blessed be He, set aside the upper ones and the lower ones, and He chose none of them except Israel His people, and He brought them out of Egypt, the nakedness of the land, the place of filth and uncleanness, not by an angel and not by, and so on, but the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and in His very self, went down there, as it is written (Exodus 3:8): "And I came down to rescue him," and so on, in order to bring them near to Him in a true nearness and union, in an actual binding of the nefesh, in the manner of kisses, mouth to mouth, to speak the word of Hashem, this being the halakhah, and the cleaving of spirit to spirit, which is the grasp of the Torah and the knowledge of His will and His wisdom, for all is actually one.

And so it is with every nefesh of Israel at the time of occupation in the Torah and the mitzvot.

And this is what Asaph said in the holy spirit, on behalf of the whole Community of Israel in exile (Psalms 73:22): "And I was brutish and I did not know.

And this is what the verse said (Genesis 29:11): "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his voice and wept." For Rachel is the Community of Israel, the source of all the souls.

"And he wept," to arouse and to draw from there great mercies upon all the souls and upon the source, the Community of Israel, to raise them from their exile and to join them in the upper union of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the manner of kisses, which is the cleaving of spirit to spirit, as it is written (Song of Songs 1:1): "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." That is, the binding of a man's speech with the word of Hashem, this being the halakhah.

Yet there is one love that takes in every aspect and degree of great love and of love of the world, and it is the same for every nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of Israel, an inheritance to us from our fathers.

And a love much greater than this, hidden likewise in every nefesh of Israel as an inheritance from our fathers, is what is written in the Ra'aya Mehemna, the Faithful Shepherd (Zohar, part 3, 281a): like a son who busies himself after his father and his mother, and loves them more than his own body, his nefesh, and his spirit, and so on.

And though, who is this, and which is he, whose heart is bold to draw near, so as to reach even one part out of a thousand of the degree of the love of the Faithful Shepherd, still a bare edge of it and a whisper of it, from the abundance of his goodness and his light, shines on Israel as a whole in every generation, as they wrote in the Tikkunim (114a), that his spreading is in every generation to give them light, and so on.

Only, this ray is in a manner of great hiding and concealment in the souls of the whole house of Israel.

And behold, from what we wrote above concerning the lower fear, what they wrote in the Gemara (Berakhot 33b) on the verse (Deuteronomy 10:12), "And now, Israel, what does Hashem (God) your Elohim ask of you, but to fear Hashem your Elohim", will be well understood.

For in every single nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of the house of Israel there is something of the aspect of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.

For he is one of the seven shepherds who draw down vitality and divinity to the whole of the souls of Israel, and therefore they are called by the name "shepherds".

That is, he draws down the aspect of knowledge to the whole of Israel, to know Hashem, each one according to the grasp of his soul and its root above, and its drawing of nourishment from the root of the soul of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, which is rooted in the supernal knowledge of the ten sefirot (divine channels) of Atzilut (emanation), which are united with their Emanator, blessed is He.

And this power, and this trait, to bind his knowledge to Hashem, is in every soul of the house of Israel, by its nourishment from the soul of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.

The meaning is: in the way a person searches for a hidden treasure and a store hidden in the depths of the earth, digging after it with mighty toil, so one needs to dig with mighty toil, to uncover a treasure of the fear of heaven, stored away and hidden in the understanding of the heart of every person of Israel.

But all Israel are believers, children of believers, without any inquiry of a human intellect, and they say: "You are He, before the world was created", and so on, as above, chapter 20.

And behold, every person of Israel, whoever he may be, when he contemplates this for a long hour every day, how the Holy One, blessed be He, actually fills the upper ones and the lower ones, and the heavens and the earth, actually, and the whole earth is actually full of His glory, and He watches and looks and searches his kidneys and his heart, and counts all his deeds and his words and all his steps, then the fear will be fixed in his heart for the whole of the day.

And as regards Moses, that is, as regards the aspect of the knowledge in every divine soul of Israel, it is a small matter, as above, [for the knowledge is what binds the hidden places of the understanding of the heart to the aspect of revelation in actual thought, as is known to those who know the hidden wisdom].

And as it is written (Jeremiah 23:24): "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth", and He sets aside the upper ones and the lower ones, and singles out His kingship upon His people Israel in general, and upon him in particular.

And this acceptance is true, without any doubt, for it is the nature of the souls of all Israel not to rebel against the holy King, blessed be He.

Therefore he shall intend to unite, and to cleave to Him, blessed be He, the source of his nefesh elokit and the source of the souls of all Israel, which is the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, called by the name Shekhinah (the divine presence), because it dwells and clothes itself within all worlds, to give them life and to sustain them.

And he shall intend to draw His light, blessed be He, upon the source of his soul and the souls of all Israel, to unite them.

And this is the meaning of "For the sake of the union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhinah, in the name of all Israel".

But the union of his soul, and its inclusion in the light of Hashem so as to become one: this, every person of Israel desires in its full truth, completely, with all the heart and with all the soul, from the natural love hidden in the heart of every Israelite, to cleave to Hashem, and not to be separated, and not to be cut off and divided, God spare us, from His union and His oneness, blessed be He, in any way, even by an actual giving over of the soul.

And behold, this intention is true, in its full truth, completely, in every soul of Israel, at every time and every hour, from the natural love that is a heritage to us from our fathers.

But the aspect of the ruach of the tzaddikim, and likewise all the rest of the souls of Israel, who served Hashem with the fear and the love that are hidden in the heart of the whole of Israel, do not rise there, except on the Sabbath and the new moon alone, by way of the pillar that goes from the lower Garden of Eden to the upper Garden of Eden, which is the world of Beriah, called the upper Garden of Eden, to take delight in Hashem and to enjoy the radiance of the Shekhinah (the divine presence).

And also love alone is not called by the name of service without a lower awe at least, which is hidden in the heart of all Israel, as will be explained further on.

And so they are, by way of a parable, the natural awe and the love that are hidden in the heart of all Israel, for they are an inheritance to us from our fathers, and like a nature in our souls, as mentioned above.

This will be when the whole neshamah and the nefesh elokit in all of Israel, divided in particulars into sixty myriads, have each particular nefesh fulfill all 613 mitzvot of the Torah.

And once the whole of the vital nefesh in the whole of Israel is a holy chariot for Hashem, then the whole of the vitality of this world as well, which is now the kelipah of Nogah, will go out from its impurity and its filth, and will rise to holiness, to be a chariot for Hashem when His glory is revealed.

And all flesh will see together, and He will shine upon them in the splendor of the majesty of His might, and the glory of Hashem will fill the whole earth, and Israel will see eye to eye, as at the giving of the Torah, as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:35): "You were shown, so that you would know that Hashem is Elohim.

And so it follows that the whole purpose of the days of the Messiah and of the revival of the dead, which is the revealing of His glory and of His divinity, blessed be He, and the making of the spirit of impurity pass from the land, depends on drawing His divinity and the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, into the vital nefesh of the whole of Israel, in all its 248 limbs, through its fulfilling all 248 "do" commandments, and on making the spirit of impurity pass from it by its keeping all 365 "do not" commandments, so that its 365 sinews will not draw from it.

For the whole of Israel, who are sixty myriads of particular souls, are the whole of the vitality of the whole world.

Now this drawing down and this shining, which a person draws and makes shine from the shining of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, upon his own nefesh and upon the souls of all Israel, is the Shekhinah, the Assembly of Israel, the source of all the souls of Israel, as will be explained further on.

Then the materiality of the body and of the world will be refined, and they will be able to receive the revealing of the light of Hashem, which will shine for Israel by means of the Torah that is called might.

And from the surplus of the shining given to Israel, the darkness of the nations will also grow bright, as it is written (Isaiah 60:3): "nations will walk by your light", and the rest.

Something of this same kind was granted to Israel at the standing at Mount Sinai, only they were not able to bear it, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Exodus Rabbah 29:4; Song of Songs Rabbah 6:3), that at every utterance their soul flew out, and so on.

And this is what our rabbis, of blessed memory, said (Makkot 24a): "Six hundred and thirteen mitzvot (each one a mitzvah (a commanded deed)) were given to Israel.

And this is what is written (Psalms 149:2): "Israel shall rejoice in his Makers." The meaning is that everyone who is of the seed of Israel has cause to rejoice in the joy of Hashem, who exults and rejoices in His dwelling in the lower ones, for these are the aspect of making, physical, actually.

And behold, through keeping the things mentioned above, so that his body be despised and loathsome in his eyes, and only his joy be the joy of the soul alone, this is a straight and easy way to come to the keeping of the mitzvah (a commanded deed), "And you shall love your companion as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), for every soul of Israel, from the great to the small.

And therefore all Israel are called brothers in actual fact, from the side of the root of their soul in the one Hashem (God), only that the bodies are divided.

For the foundation and the root of the whole Torah is to raise and to lift the soul above the body, higher and higher, up to the principal and the root of all worlds, and also to draw the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed is He, into the assembly of Israel, as will be explained further on, that is, into the source of the souls of all Israel, so that it be one in one, specifically, and not when there is division, God spare us, in the souls.

And the mercy cancels the hatred and awakens the love, as is known from what is written (Isaiah 29:22): "To Jacob, who redeemed Abraham." [And David the king, peace be upon him, did not say (Psalms 139:22) "With a total hatred I hated them," and the rest, except about the sectarians and the heretics, who have no portion in the God of Israel, as it is found in the Gemara at the beginning of chapter 16 of Shabbat (Shabbat 116a).]

Rather, because the evil that is in the souls of Israel was still in its strength in the left cavity, for their filth did not cease until the giving of the Torah.

And so the sitra achra, even though there is in it much life-force, to give life to all the unclean living beings, and to the souls of the nations of the world, and also to the nefesh bahamit of Israel, as mentioned above.

Rather, surely, because Israel themselves are believers, children of believers, only that the sitra achra clothed in their body lifted itself over the light of the holiness of their nefesh elokit, in the coarseness of its spirit and its haughtiness, in insolence, without reason and without knowledge.

And when they heard these hard words, their heart was subdued and broken within them, as it is written (Numbers 14:39): "And the people mourned very much." And of itself the sitra achra fell from its rule and its haughtiness and the coarseness of its spirit, and Israel themselves are believers.

But Israel themselves are believers, and so on.

And this is the speech of the Shekhinah (the divine presence) to her children, the whole of Israel, as they explained in the Tikkunim.

And nevertheless every man of Israel is ready and prepared to hand over his life for the holiness of the Name, so as not to bow down to foreign worship even for the moment, and to repent afterwards.

And so too the three garments of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) from the kelipah of nogah in Israel, which are thought, speech, and deed, clothed in the 365 prohibitions of the Torah and of the rabbis.

And there is for you no exile greater than this, from a high roof, and so on, and as explained above, that the root and the source of the souls of the whole house of Israel is from supernal wisdom, and He, blessed be He, and His wisdom are one, and so on.

And for a further explanation, one needs to explain well what is written (Proverbs 20:27): "The neshamah of a person is a lamp of Hashem (God)." The meaning is that Israel, who are called adam, a human being (Yevamot 61a), their neshamah is, as a parable, like the light of the lamp, which constantly sways upward by its nature, because the light of the fire desires by nature to part from the wick and to cling to its root above, in the general element of fire beneath the sphere of the moon, as it is written in Etz Chaim.

And so too the reshaim (wicked people), and the transgressors of Israel, before they come to a trial to sanctify the Name.

For it is concealed and covered in a sackcloth garment of kelipah in the transgressors of Israel, and from that a spirit of folly enters them, to sin, as the sages of blessed memory said (Sotah 3a): "A person does not sin," and so on.

And this is called the awe that is included in the love, which is the natural love in the nefesh elokit of the whole of Israel, whose wish and will by its nature are to cling to its root and its source, the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He.

That is the concealed love in the heart of the whole of Israel, which is an inheritance to us from our fathers.

And in any case, even for the lightest of the light and for the transgressors of Israel, there is drawn, through their union, a nefesh of the nefesh of Malkhut (kingship) of Asiyah, which is the lowest level in the holiness of Asiyah.

And so it comes out that the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is clothed in the aspect of wisdom in the nefesh of a person, whoever he may be of Israel.

And the aspect of the wisdom in it, together with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is clothed in it, spreads through every aspect of the whole nefesh, to give it life from the aspect of its head to the aspect of its foot, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 7:12): "Wisdom gives life to those who hold it." [And sometimes the transgressors of Israel draw down very high neshamot that had been in the depths of the kelipot (husks that hide holiness), as it is written in the Book of Gilgulim.]

Therefore all of Israel, even the women and the unlearned people of the land, believe in Hashem, for faith is above knowledge and above apprehension, as in "The naive person trusts every word, and the shrewd person understands," and so on (Proverbs 14:15).

Therefore even the lightest of the light, and the transgressors of Israel, for the most part hand over their lives for the holiness of the Name, and they bear hard torments so as not to deny the one Hashem, even if they are ignorant and unlearned people of the land and do not know the greatness of Hashem.

But even without this, they still ascend to the world of Yetzirah (formation), by means of the natural awe and love concealed in the heart of every one of Israel from their birth, as will be explained further on at length.

Rather, the concealed love that is in the heart of the whole of Israel is enough for him.

It is our inheritance from our fathers, for the whole of Israel, as will be explained further on.

Only, I want to cling to Him, my nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), my ruach, and my neshamah, by their clothing themselves in His three garments, blessed be He, which are deed, speech, and thought in Hashem and His Torah and His mitzvot, each a mitzvah (a commanded deed), out of the concealed love in my heart for Hashem, as in the heart of the whole of Israel, who are called "lovers of Your name" (Psalms 5:12).

Only a spirit of folly has entered him, and it seems to him that with this transgression he is still in his Jewishness, and his neshamah is not parted from the Elohim of Israel.

And as it is found in the Tikkunim (Tikkunei Zohar 1b), that in the souls of Israel there are several kinds of levels and aspects: pious ones, mighty ones who overpower their yetzer (the urge), masters of Torah, prophets, and so on, tzaddikim, and so on.

Now the dwelling place of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) from kelipat nogah (kelipah: a husk that hides holiness), in every person of Israel, is in the heart, in the left chamber, which is full of blood.

But the vital nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) in a person of Israel, which is from the side of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) clothed in the person's blood, as mentioned above, and the souls of beasts, wild animals, birds, and fish that are clean and permitted for eating, and the lasting and the life of every lifeless thing and every plant that is permitted for eating, and likewise the lasting and the life of every act, speech, and thought in the matters of this world that have in them no side of a ban, neither a root nor a branch of the 365 mitzvot (commanded deeds) of "you shall not do" and their branches, whether from the Torah or from the rabbis, only that they are not for the sake of Heaven, but the will of the body, its wish, and its craving, and even if it is truly the need of the body, its lasting, and its life, but his aim is not for the sake of Heaven, so as to serve Hashem (God) with his body: these acts, speeches, and thoughts are no better than the vital nefesh bahamit itself.

And the whole of it, all of it, flows and is drawn from the second level in the kelipot and the sitra achra (the other side), which is a fourth kelipah, called kelipat nogah, which in this world, called the world of action, is in its greater part as in its whole, evil, and only a little good is mixed inside it, [for from it come the good traits in the nefesh bahamit of a person of Israel, as was explained above].